Xlii PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



loped in numerous divisions which correspond completely with the 

 beds known to occur in the Alps, and especially with the so-called 

 Virgloria-Jcalk with its Brachiopods of the WellenkalTc. Beyond 

 these follow the E.h£etic formation, the Lias, Jura, Chalk (the latter 

 especially distinguished by the occurrence of thick masses of dolo- 

 mite, which, petrographically, are not to be distinguished from the 

 far more ancient Triassic and Ehaetic dolomites of the Alps), and at 

 last the Eocene formations. 



" A parallel zone of limestone, such as occurs especially so dis- 

 tinctly and largely developed in the eastern portion of the Alps to 

 the north and south of the middle zone, is totally wanting in the Car- 

 pathians. The pile of crystalline central masses and the sedimentary 

 rocks enveloping them, and which, as before mentioned, appear to re- 

 present the middle zone of the Alps, is followed on the north, imme- 

 diately, by the broad zone of the long-known Carpathian Sandstones. 

 We have succeeded by our surveys in the Carpathians in resolving 

 this zone of sandstone, far more sharply than in the Alps, into its 

 diflferent divisions, and are enabled not only to separate the Eocene 

 from the Cretaceous sandstones, but also in these latter to distinguish 

 various subdivisions. One of the most remarkable phenomena in 

 the structure of the Carpathians, as is well known, is the peculiarly 

 craggy limestone chffs towering out of the zone of sandstone (the 

 KlippenTcalh, as it was called by Pusch), to explain the origin of 

 which the most various hypotheses have been invented. Our in- 

 vestigations have proved that strata of very different antiquity, be- 

 ginning with the Lias or even with the Trias, and extending upwards 

 to the Neocomian formation, have participated in the composition 

 of these cliffs, and that they exhibit disturbances of the original 

 stratification such as are very seldom to be observed within a simi- 

 lar area. Every one of the numerous cliffs is formed of a great 

 mass of limestone composed of members of different formations, each 

 of which stands in no direct connexion with its neighbours ; indeed 

 it is often the case that several masses with divergent direction of 

 the dip and strike of their beds take part in the composition of one 

 and the same cliff. One of these cliffs (near Podbiel, in the Arva 

 county) shows a complete reversal of the beds ; from the Neoco- 

 mian FlecTcemnergel, as the lowest member, there follow in it, in the 

 ascending order. Jura limestones as far as the Lower Lias ; and 

 moreover, in reference to the question which is engrossing in so 

 lively a manner the attention of geologists, concerning the age of 

 the limestone with the Terehratula diphya and its allies, and on the 

 boundary beds between the Jura and Chalk, these cliffs provide us 

 with the most important points of comparison. Herr von Mojsisovics 

 has been especially successful in establishing a whole series of groups 

 of beds on a parallel with the Tithonian etage, in which, to mention 

 only one of them, the Stramberg limestone, at any rate, keeps its 

 place in the Jura formation. 



*' One of the most remarkable characteristics which distinguish 

 the Carpathians from the Alps is the enormously massive occurrence 

 of trachytic rocks in the former. It is true that our detailed ex- 



